Was the Obama Super PAC steelworker ad filmed at the same time as Obama’s steelworker campaign ad?

posted at 8:32 pm on August 8, 2012 by Allahpundit

Ace and Moe Lane are already all over this, but readers always enjoy video detective work so let’s get in on it. Two screenshots for you, the top one from the Obama campaign’s ad released in May and the bottom one from the sleaze grenade tossed at Romney by O’s Super PAC yesterday:

Remember, the campaign can’t coordinate legally with the Super PAC so if they’re working off of the same footage, that could (but wouldn’t necessarily be) problematic. According to Bill Burton, the Super PAC spot (the bottom one) was shot in a union hall in early February, more than enough time for footage taken at the same shoot to have made it into Obama’s campaign ad this past spring.

Ace notes that the steelworker’s wearing the same shirt in both clips. Moe points out that the hardhat he has on at the beginning of the campaign clip (the first one below) appears to be on the shelf behind him at the union hall, which seems odd. And yet, the locations do look different to me. If you look closely to the right of the door in the Super PAC ad, you can see what looks like the reverse side of a “No Parking” sign stuck to the window. Obviously, that’s not a residence. The campaign ad does look like it was shot in a residence, though. The lamp and even what appears to be a glass of milk next to it look too homey to be a room in a union building. That doesn’t mean the footage wasn’t taken on the same day — the producers might have wanted to film in both locations so they could show both work and home — but it’s a small data arrow pointing away from coordination.

Does any of this matter, though? Ask yourself this: What’s the best-case scenario here for Obama’s campaign and his Super PAC? I think it’s that the campaign discovered this guy and shot their own ad and then the Super PAC saw the ad and decided they couldn’t resist a piece of the “Romney causes cancer” storyline, whereupon they went back and shot an entirely separate interview with the steelworker so that they could give it the full smear treatment. It’d actually be a comfort to think that they’re working off of the same footage since that could possibly be explained as laziness. If instead they’re being proactive in smearing Mitt by independently pursuing interviews with Soptic, hoo boy.

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I wonder if emotions are running high this time for that group. Leftist politicians live and die by emotions…most especially the emotion of hate. The good thing about Romney being a stiff is that right now, he’s not someone that inspires the kind of hatred that Bush did. Obama and Thugs haven’t found the thing about Romney to really inspire the hate like they could last time when they could equate McCain to Bush.

Why is it that we never learn the name of the douchebag’s wife? Not once does he call anything but “my wife” or her.

Secondly, Burton’s organization claims that it is responsible for the content of the ad in the standard disclaimer. I wonder if there is anyway to file a complaint with the FCC or FEC for irresponsible propaganda.

In 1997, with Armco’s pension guarantees set to expire in one year, the United Steelworkers local at the Kansas City plant was worried that GS was not setting aside enough money to cover pension obligations and other benefits in the event of a shutdown.

David Foster, the negotiator for the union, said labor talks were typically more tense at companies owned by private equity firms because the high level of debt left managers with less flexibility.

Contract talks foundered and the union went on strike in April 1997. The first standoff since 1959 quickly turned nasty. Workers shot bottle rockets at security guards, tossed nails in the roadways to flatten the tires of nonunion trucks and pounded on the windows of vehicles as they left the plant.

Different parts of the union hall. Top picture is the union boss’s office, second is main union hall. This is a regime that thinks it gets to decide when the Senate is in recess. Campaign laws are simply a club to use on the other side.

If I were the video producer and I had enough footage left from a previous job, I’d be all over trying to sell it to a new client once I got a release from the previous client. May not be so sinister, it may just be an enterprising producer.

Didn’t Obama use the same sleazy tactics to destroy his opponent when he ran for state senator in Illinois? The Chicago gangland thugs have had these stink bombs at the ready for a long time. They wanted Romney and once again the MSM delivered for them.

Team Obama makes Clinton look like a saint and Nixon look like an amateur.

Yep. First at the state senate level when he destroyed his democratic (black woman) opposition in the primary. Then he went after the repubs. But first he ate his own. *Women? Are you paying attention?*

Don’t have to read it. The six minutes of propaganda make it clear these are all rabid union people who parrot the typical union talking points. The steel mill was some sort of socialist utopia for thirty years then new owners came in and contracts were being re-negotiated. The mill was failing and the expectation from these union members was that there would be no changes to salaries or anything else. Well, do these idiots even acknowledge what happened to the steel industry? Ask Pittsburgh.

It is long past time for Romney to come out swinging. I am sick and tired of this BS. I am fed up with him and all the rest of the Republicans who refuse to counter these horrendous slanders. When the hell will someone punch back? What the he11 is going on?!

I’m done with these morons. And I’m beginning to believe that Republicans are cut from the same cloth as these statists. It’s over.

Felon or not, that shirt in a suitably sad gray was picked out for the douchebag. The outside shots were on a cloudy winterish day. They played down the union membership angle and call themselves “workers.”

I am curious though, with thirty years working in a steel mill, what marketable skills did Soptic have for finding alternative employment. Did he look to re-train? Flint, MI, is filled with angry unemployed autoworkers who refuse to do anything but wait to get re-hired by a UAW shop. I suspect Soptic is that kind of guy.

The world where a Romney spokesperson said that under Romneycare this woman would have been insured. southsideironworks lives in that world and it’s a dark, dark place.

29Victor on August 8, 2012 at 9:14 PM

Oh, great, I can put you down with the other ABRs who don’t know the difference between a 72 page bill passed with a veto-proof majority with an 85% Dem congress on the state level with a 2700 paged billed crammed through by the barest minimum via a b.s. reconciliation vote on the federal level.

Good to know I can just ignore your posts going forward. Have a nice day in “willfully ignorant land.”

As a commercial production person and we’re pretty good at making one location look like 3 or 4, I’m iffy and can make a case for No, but the Hubster/Cameraman & Editor says it’s a strong Yes.

I’m picking up the oddity that the lavalier is clearly visible in the top video – Professional audio guys are obsessive that the viewer never sees their mics. It vanishes in the bottom piece which means that either that audio guy knows how to hide his mics or used a shotgun. However, I lose my argument when you look at the very similar audio levels and mixing – audio guys have very distinctive styles and both spots match.

Hubster is feels that both ads have the same lighting guy on the internals. All of the light angles match on both spots. (Don’t be thrown by the obvious differences in lighting temperatures – those can be done in the camera or in post.) What is consistent in both spots are the “around town” scenes, in particular the cloud patterns, the camera angles and the style techniques that are used. The edit style is also nearly identical between the two spots.

What is obvious is that even with a Union crew doing the work is that all in all both spots were “cheap” and lack the polish and attention to detail you would see with higher end studios. The 2nd spot has had a little bit more work done to make it appear colder and more desolate and darken the clouds… but it’s still a super simple filter app.

So, your best analysis is that it was likely done at the same time. 2nd best is that footage was shared and 3rd the same crew was hired by the 2 different groups. Add to that the timing with the phone conference and you’ve got a pretty good case for it being a group effort.

Add to that the timing with the phone conference and you’ve got a pretty good case for it being a group effort.

2nd Ammendment Mother on August 8, 2012 at 9:20 PM

I’m thinking that Obama’s mention of his mother’s fictionalized battles with insurance while she was dying of cancer (none of it true) was no coincidence. Low intelligence voters are supposed to hear about Obama’s mother’s battles and link it to this propaganda from the Super PAC.

Face it, there was collusion going on between Obama’s campaign and the PAC. This as they constantly tell you is utterly illegal. Will anything happen? Absolutely not.

It would appear that Soptic’s actually fell victim to those liberal lies, that 20 of the population has no access to health care. She might have suspended medical treatment for herself due to a false belief that she couldn’t get medical care. She waited until her last days to find out that it actually was available.

Unmentioned in the ad below is that Joe’s wife Ranae actually had her own insurance at Saver’s Thrift store and carried it for possibly 1 to 2 years after her husband’s employer went bankrupt, until she was laid off. She actually died in 2006, years after Joe was laid off. He held a part time job as a custodian.
At the time of her death, there were 30,000 in hospital bills. Joe contributed 12,000 from a savings account and the hospital wrote the remainder off.

Mitt Romney stole the guys shirts, drove over his dog, killed his pet canary, and then to top it all off kept him from getting a decent job for six years after he left Bain…..

harlekwin15 on August 8, 2012 at 9:21 PM

Given that Romney usually just pins people down and shaves their head or something, this douchebag must have really ticked off Romney for that kind of treatment. ;O

Seriously, Romney is supposed to be personally responsible for employees at businesses Bain invested in for perpetuity? Even without the whole “murder” thing this ad is offensive in that it makes no sense exactly what Bain or Romney was supposed to do other than give the union carte blanche, not question the salaries, and keep the plant at full operation even though there was no work. It’s just absurd.

Seriously, Romney is supposed to be personally responsible for employees at businesses Bain invested in for perpetuity? Even without the whole “murder” thing this ad is offensive in that it makes no sense exactly what Bain or Romney was supposed to do other than give the union carte blanche, not question the salaries, and keep the plant at full operation even though there was no work. It’s just absurd.

Happy Nomad on August 8, 2012 at 9:32 PM

Romney’s connection to that woman is tenuous at best. Liberals are much more directly culpable for any number of deaths that they cause by enshrining their half-baked schemes into the law. For example, how many thousands of motorists die each year as a result of CAFE standards?

Oh, great, I can put you down with the other ABRs who don’t know the difference between a 72 page bill passed with a veto-proof majority with an 85% Dem congress on the state level with a 2700 paged billed crammed through by the barest minimum via a b.s. reconciliation vote on the federal level.

Good to know I can just ignore your posts going forward. Have a nice day in “willfully ignorant land.”

Dark Star on August 8, 2012 at 9:18 PM

Ok. And I can put you down as another Rombot so blinded by his light that you can’t see when he makes mistakes.

….oh wait, I already had you down as that.

Ok. I’ll put you down as someone willing to sling unnecessary invective at anyone who dares to criticize….oh….no….I already have you down as that as well.

Oh, great, I can put you down with the other ABRs who don’t know the difference between a 72 page bill passed with a veto-proof majority with an 85% Dem congress on the state level with a 2700 paged billed crammed through by the barest minimum via a b.s. reconciliation vote on the federal level.

Good to know I can just ignore your posts going forward. Have a nice day in “willfully ignorant land.”

Dark Star on August 8, 2012 at 9:18 PM

He does have a point, you know. I’m all in for Romney, but they did botch the response to this issue. This election is winnable if we don’t blow it. but it is not in the bag. This kind of a response from the Romney camp doesn’t inspire confidence.

My daughter/storyboard editor and sometimes director pointed out something important on wardrobe. Wardrobe is key in carrying off a spot and conveying your message – putting this guy in a red flannel shirt would have given a different feel and texture.

If we provide the wardrobe, we have a selection of shirts in different colors and sizes on hand. We usually screen shot several shirts to get the right look before we start shooting. We rarely ever allow actors, much less non-actors, to choose their own wardrobe from their own closet. The average moron will show up at a video shoot in their very best dress suit and tie. The odds are low that he chose his own shirt to match the very cold, despairing mood. And even lower that a second production team would make the same wardrobe choice.

Her second point is that the spots are virtually identical style-wise. Agencies, directors and producers are very territorial about their work and that it reflects their style. Production companies are even more competitive. The second team would have gone out of it’s way to “one up” the work of the first company. The key to survival in the industry is proving you’re better than the last guy they hired. Even in our little shop, it’s very clear in the finished product whether she or I had creative control.

If I were the video producer and I had enough footage left from a previous job, I’d be all over trying to sell it to a new client once I got a release from the previous client. May not be so sinister, it may just be an enterprising producer.

ElRonaldo on August 8, 2012 at 9:03 PM

When I freelance, the client owns everything I shoot. They buy it when they buy my services.

Having shot and produced many interviews and testimonials, it’s very, very rare to have “left over” footage that just happens to be enough to create another spot – Should it happen, a good producer will recognize the value of that “extra” footage and won’t allow it to get into anybody else’s hands.

No, you go into a shoot with a plan in mind – they got two spots out of this shoot because the producer planned it that way. The two “locations” are an indication that they were looking to create two distinctly different spots. Stupid that they wouldn’t have Joe change his shirt – maybe they thought the colorist would be able to affect a more noticeable change.

Somebody should ask Soptic if he was part of the 1997 strike that threw nails under truck tires and shot bottle rockets at security guards. Or if he ever manipulated the Bain management for undeserved overtime like his co-workers report doing.

Oh, great, I can put you down with the other ABRs who don’t know the difference between a 72 page bill passed with a veto-proof majority with an 85% Dem congress on the state level with a 2700 paged billed crammed through by the barest minimum via a b.s. reconciliation vote on the federal level.

Good to know I can just ignore your posts going forward. Have a nice day in “willfully ignorant land.”

I have done edit work with footage from different vendors, and I can always tell the differences in footage.

I think it was filmed at the same time. Same shirt, same style, only different post video adjustments.
It’s also interesting that he doesn’t have glasses on in the PAC ad.. Difference in mics is also interesting..

Ever since Mitt Romney burned down the steel plant where I work and gave us all radiation poisoning, I haven’t been able to find a job. I haven’t bought a new shirt in 20 years. I don’t think Mitt Romeny understands what he does to people. I don’t think Mitt Romney cares!

Not sure about the reporting rules for SuperPACs, but it seems like it would be pretty easy to locate the name of the agency or production company that did the work on the Priorities spot and compare it to the reports for OFA. You’re probably looking for a $10K item because of the long form – about $2500 on the spot. I’d start with local companies.

Apparently your company was already in trouble and near bankruptcy or closing when they called Bain in, so what would have happened to your job if Bain ahad not came in. I think the outcome would have been the same.

Because, Lord knows, ignoring every OTHER fabrication in this ad, this would be the only steel mill ever shut down in the US. Every OTHER one, ever opened, remains so. In fact, US steel production is the highest it has ever been right ?

It isn’t, you say? Well that can’t be right. I’m sure the point they are making here is that evil Bain Capital is the only business on record evil enough to take a profitable steel mill and close it down, if only to destroy the local economy and put people out of work in hopes they would die of cancer without the health insurance provided by that same steel mill. No other steel mills have ever closed, have they ?

BTW, no need to investigate anything. Just take a page from the Obama playbook and just state matter of factly that its obvious that Obama and the Super PAC broke the law by coordinating their ads. Let Obama and his bunch of a-holes go on the defensive if they want to prove they didn’t break the law.